Carlos Slim Net Worth

Net Worth: $81.6 Billion

Full Name: Carlos Slim Helú

Born: January 28, 1940

Place Of Birth: Mexico

Occupation: Chair of Grupo Carso

Marital Status: Widower

Carlos Slim Net Worth History

Carlos Slim’s path to becoming the world’s current richest individual is one of sheer attention to detail. Born into a comfortable family Slim was taught by his father, himself a successful investor, the absolute importance of gaining a head for numbers and keeping astute and comprehensive records of every peso he earned. He proved a natural and following earning a degree in mechanical engineering, decided instead that a career as an investment trader was the course to take. He was a millionaire (adjusted to today’s figures) before he was 25, that he then astonishingly turned into $300m (adjusted) by his early 30’s. Essential to his success was to diversify his shares and companies so he was essentially immune to severe economic contraction, and to have capital free to buy struggling companies at rock bottom prices and maintain them, then invest in them further once the economy recovered. In later years he stuck with the times, shifting his focus from basic commodities and crops towards technology, airlines and modern infrastructure.

About Carlos Slim

Carlos Slim is far from the ‘poor boy done good’, and indeed far more an ‘affluent guy made the very top’. He has never made any secret of the importance of his early education and coaching in basic numbers and stocks. In his early teens he had already invested in shares and made solid returns, especially understanding the long term value of compound interest (particularly in government bonds). When translated into buying businesses and shares, he was in the position as an already very wealthy man to literally capitalize on floundering companies and state owned concessions. He is the personification of a man who has made the most of his money to grow money, hence the richest man on earth.

Once of the favorite questions that people like to ponder is what they’d do if they became fabulously wealthy, what they would buy and where they would go. Most would spend lavishly and live like a king – but not Carlos Slim.

Rather than buy huge mansions, Slim instead lives in a rather modest six bed house on the outskirts of Mexico City where he has called home for over half of his life and nearby to the area he grew up. However he also owns an incredible amount of real estate as investments – prime real estate on Wall Street, Hollywood Boulevard, and a variety of lavish mansions that he chooses not to live in. His property investments have followed the trend of his business purchases, typically making double or more the price he paid for them originally.

Slim has stated quite publicly that he doesn’t intend on giving away a significant proportion of his wealth for charities and philanthropy. But when you are worth what he is, the 5% he settled on is a considerable sum indeed and he has split those billions between cultural, historical and educational endeavors. Anything is of course better than nothing, yet when compared to other billionaires pledging to pass on over half of their wealth some have criticized Slim for being cheap with charity.

Likewise his style of investment has met with vocal criticism, with allegations that he has profited on the backs of mistakes made in a comparatively poor country. Slim earns countless times per day what an average Mexican would earn in their lifetime (median income $14000/year). Likewise critics have labelled his buying power as monopolistic, including those from overseas who have seen Slim purchase large stakes in their domestic companies.

Ultimately Slim has never made any claim to be other than what he is – an unashamed capitalist who just happens to have won the game. Remarkably he still manages all of his affairs by pen and pad, refusing to use computers himself and makes light that he struggles to keep up with all of his dealings.